ICT news

• AT&T and Verizon Connect First Cellphone-To-Satellite Video Calls

  24-02-2025 23:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  AT&T and Verizon have successfully completed their first cellphone-to-satellite video calls using AST SpaceMobile's satellites, marking a significant step toward commercial satellite networks. The Verge reports: Verizon has completed its first cellphone-to-satellite video call, while AT&T has completed its first using satellites that will be used as part of a commercial network. [...] Verizon pulled off "a live video call between two mobile devices with one connected via satellite and th
  
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• Anthropic Launches the World's First 'Hybrid Reasoning' AI Model

  24-02-2025 22:40 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company founded by exiles from OpenAI, has introduced the first AI model that can produce either conventional output or a controllable amount of "reasoning" needed to solve more grueling problems. Anthropic says the new hybrid model, called Claude 3.7, will make it easier for users and developers to tackle problems that require a mix of instinctive output and step-by-step cogitation. "The [user] has a lot of co
  
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• Microsoft Quietly Launches Ad-Supported Version of Office Apps for Windows

  24-02-2025 21:58 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has quietly launched a new version of Microsoft Office for Windows that can be used to edit documents for free, no Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license key required. From a report: This free version of Office is based on the full desktop apps, but has most features locked behind the Microsoft 365 subscription. The free version of Office for Windows includes ads that are permanently on screen when within a document in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Additionally, this new free vers
  
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• AI Reshapes Corporate Workforce as Companies Halt Traditional Hiring

  24-02-2025 20:10 via slashdot.org
  
  Major corporations are reshaping their workforces around AI with Salesforce announcing it will not hire software engineers in 2025 and other companies laying off thousands while shifting focus to AI-specific roles. Duolingo has laid off thousands after implementing ChatGPT-4, UPS cut 4,000 jobs in its largest layoff in 116 years, and IBM paused hiring for back-office and HR positions that AI can now handle.
  Amazon is redirecting staff from Alexa to AI areas, while Intuit is laying off 10% of its
  
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• Ellison's Half-Billion-Dollar Quest To Change Farming Has Been a Bust

  24-02-2025 19:33 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Oracle founder Larry Ellison's agricultural technology venture Sensei Ag has largely failed to deliver on its ambitious goals despite costing more than half a billion dollars, more than he spent to purchase Hawaii's Lanai island itself. Eight years after its founding, little of the revolutionary technology Sensei promised - including AI crop breeding, robotic harvesting, and advanced sensors - is being utilized in its six greenhouses on Lanai, according to WSJ.
  The company has faced numerous set
  
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• More Than Half of Countries Are Ignoring Biodiversity Pledges

  24-02-2025 18:36 via news.slashdot.org
  
  More than half the world's countries have no plans to protect 30% of land and sea for nature, despite committing to a global agreement to do so less than three years ago, new analysis shows. From a report: In late 2022, nearly every country signed a once-in-a-decade UN deal to halt the destruction of Earth's ecosystems. It included a headline target to protect nearly a third of the planet for biodiversity by the end of the decade -- a goal known as "30 by 30." But as country leaders gather in Ro
  
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• Software Firm Bird To Leave Europe Due To Onerous Regulations in AI Era, Says CEO

  24-02-2025 17:42 via slashdot.org
  
  Cloud communications software firm Bird, one of the Netherlands' most prominent tech startups, plans to move most of its operations out of Europe, its CEO said, citing restrictive regulations and difficulties hiring skilled technology workers. From a report: "We are mostly leaving Europe as it lacks the environment we need to innovate in an AI-first era of technology," CEO Robert Vis told Reuters on Monday. "We foresee that regulations in Europe will block true innovation in a global economy mov
  
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• Microsoft Dropped Some AI Data Center Leases, TD Cowen Says

  24-02-2025 17:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has canceled some leases for US data center capacity, according to TD Cowen, raising broader concerns over whether it's securing more AI computing capacity than it needs in the long term. From a report: OpenAI's biggest backer has voided leases in the US totaling "a couple of hundred megawatts" of capacity -- the equivalent of roughly two data centers -- canceling agreements with at least a couple of private operators, the US brokerage wrote Friday, citing "channel checks" or inquiries
  
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• Pre-Product AI 'Company' Now Valued at $30 Billion

  24-02-2025 16:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Financial Times: Venture capitalists have always been happy to back pre-profit companies. Back in the halcyon ZIRP era, they became happy to finance pre-revenue companies. But at least even Juicero, Wag and the Fyre Festival had an actual product. From Bloomberg over the weekend: "OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is raising more than $1 billion for his start-up at a valuation of over $30 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter -- vaulting the nascent venture into the ranks of the
  
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• Google To Eliminate SMS Authentication in Gmail, Implement QR Codes

  24-02-2025 15:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is preparing to abandon SMS verification codes for Gmail authentication in favor of QR codes, Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer told Forbes. The move aims to address significant security vulnerabilities inherent in SMS-based verification while combating fraudulent exploitation of Google's messaging infrastructure, he said.
  "Just like we want to move past passwords with the use of things like passkeys, we want to move away from sending SMS messages for authentication," Richendrfer said.
  
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• Should Climate Change Be Acknowledged In Movies?

  24-02-2025 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Times publishes a weekly "Boiling Point" newsletter about climate change and energy issues. And this week they examined whether the scientific fact of a change climate is reflected in the mass media:
  For the second year running, nonprofit consulting firm Good Energy applied its Climate Reality Check to the actual Oscar-nominated films [which] tests whether a movie and its characters acknowledge global warming... Of last year's 13 Oscar-nominated films that met Good Energy's crite
  
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• Apple Announces $500 Billion US Investment Plan, To Hire 20,000 People

  24-02-2025 12:42 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple said it planned to hire an additional 20,000 staff in the US over the next four years as part of a $500 billion American investment plan. Financial Times: The $500 billion figure [non-paywalled source], spread over Trump's second term in office, includes regular spending on thousands of US suppliers, data centres and corporate facilities, as well as new initiatives such as an academy in Michigan "to train the next generation of US manufacturers." Apple will also open a manufacturing facili
  
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• Meet the Journalists Training AI Models for Meta and OpenAI

  24-02-2025 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  After completing a journalism graduate degree, Carla McCanna took a job "training AI models to optimize accuracy and efficiency," according an article by Nieman Journalism Lab:
  Staff jobs are scarce... and the competition for them is daunting. (In 2024, the already beleaguered U.S. news industry cut nearly 5,000 jobs, up 59% from the previous year, according to an annual report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas....) For the past couple months, McCanna has been working close to full-time for
  
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• Fedora Amicably Resolves Legal Threat From OBS Studio Over Downstream Flatpak

  24-02-2025 06:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  When it comes to application packaging, earlier this month the site Its FOSS complained that Fedora Flatpaks "are often unmaintained or broken, leading to a poor experience for users who aren't usually aware they're using them." And this apparently created friction with OBS Studio, the free/open-source screencasting and streaming app.
  "We are now considering the Fedora Flatpaks distribution of OBS Studio a hostile fork," OBS Studio lead Joel Bethke posted in on GitLab's page for Fedora Flatpaks.
  
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• Useless High-Voltage Power Lines Risk Sparking California Fires

  24-02-2025 03:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "A line idle for decades has been accused of starting the LA area's deadly Eaton Fire," writes Bloomberg, describing California's abandoned power lines as "a fire risk hiding in plain sight."
  [Abandoned power lines] fall out of use, either because they've been replaced or because the power plants they once connected to the grid shut down... Sometimes the utilities that own idled lines disconnect them from the power grid, cutting off the flow of electricity through the cables. Other times, they d
  
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• Firefly's Moon-Orbiting 'Blue Ghost' Lunar Lander Tracked Earth-Orbiting GPS-Type Satellites

  24-02-2025 01:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this observation from space/science news blogger Robert Zimmerman:
  Having now reached lunar orbit in preparation for its landing on March 2, 2025, an engineering test instrument on Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander has now proven that even from that distance spacecraft can use the multiple GPS-type satellites in Earth orbit to track their position.[From NASA.gov]: The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite
  
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• Animated 'Avatar: the Last Airbender' Gets Sequel, Plus Two More of Netflix's Live-Action Seasons

  24-02-2025 00:19 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix calls it "a live-action reimagining of the acclaimed Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. And this weekend Netflix shared a blooper reel from their live-action show's first season, reports Engadget, "giving fans a look at some cute behind the scenes antics while they wait for the next season."The first season was released a year ago, and Netflix announced shortly after that the show had been renewed for two more [with the third season being its last]. There's no relea
  
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